Profiles

Ranulf died childless, though he was a stepfather to Arthur of Brittany, who was declared successor to the throne of King Richard I but then died of mysterious circumstances
Ranulf/Randle de BLUNDERV...

ROGER de MONTBEGON, the Surety, was the successor of Adam de Monte Begonis, whose principal lands were in Lincolnshire. Roger was apparently the son of this Adam by his wife Maud FitzSwaine. During the...

The profiles included in this project are of the barons, bishops and abbots who created and witnessed the Magna Carta in 1215 and served as sureties for its enforcement.

Overview

The Magna Carta was an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215. The charter first passed into law in 1225. The 1297 version, with the long title (originally in Latin) The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest, still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.

The 1215 Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties and accept that his will was not arbitrary, for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right which is still in existence today.

Magna Carta was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects (the barons) in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their privileges. It was preceded and directly influenced by the 1100 Charter of Liberties, when King Henry I had specified particular areas where his powers would be limited.

Despite its recognised importance, by the second half of the 19th century nearly all of its clauses had been repealed in their original form. Three clauses remain part of the law of England and Wales, however, and it is generally considered part of the uncodified constitution. Lord Denning described it as "the greatest constitutional document of all times - the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot".[1] In a 2005 speech, Lord Woolf described it as "first of a series of instruments that now are recognised as having a special constitutional status" [2], the others being the Habeas Corpus Act, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement.

The charter was an important part of the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in the English speaking world, although it was "far from unique, either in content or form".[3] In practice, Magna Carta in the medieval period did not in general limit the power of kings, but by the time of the English Civil War it had become an important symbol for those who wished to show that the King was bound by the law. It influenced the early settlers in New England[4] and inspired later constitutional documents, including the United States Constitution. [5]

Many of the illuminated manuscript images on the profiles are from a manuscript from the George John Warren Vernon manuscript collection, bound after 1837, found on http://bookbinding.com/magna-carta: "The escutcheons of the twenty-five barons who were appointed to enforce the observance of the Magna Charta together with the will of King John and the arms of the witnesses thereto." See the complete collection here: http://bookbinding.com/magna-carta/before-restoration

Others

Magna Carta of Chester

The Runnymede Charter of Liberties did not apply to Chester, which at the time was a separate feudal domain. Ranulf de Meschines, Earl of Chester granted his own Magna Carta.[6] Some of its articles were similar to the Runnymede Charter.[7]

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